We Are The Stories We Tell Ourselves

The Mosaic Film Experience partnered with ArtPrize to emphasize the power of storytelling.   On September 21, more than 150 high school students descended upon the ArtPrize STEAM Village for a Mosaic panel discussion: “We Are The Stories We Tell Ourselves.”The ArtPrize STEAM Village provides students with the opportunity to explore experiential learning stations that combine the power of the arts with technology, science, engineering, and math.“We Are The Stories We Tell Ourselves” centered on where creative inspiration comes from and explored how art has impacted everyday life.  Mosaic Film Experience program director, Liz Merriman, led the discussion between our guest speakers: Co-owner and Impact Producer of Wrinkle Creative, Mallory Patterson; Creative Director and Founder of Carbon Stories media group, Erik Lauchiè; and Junior at Grand Rapids City High School, Mariah Barrera.The panelists’ diverse backgrounds provided students with an opportunity to hear from three unique perspectives within the film industry.  While Mallory and Erik both own film production companies, Erik is a creative director and Mallory is a producer.  And while our third panelist, Mariah, is actually still in high school, she has already directed a few videos as a hobby. Mariah’s most recent directing gig was for the Mayor’s greening initiative.All of our panelists agreed that music inspires their work.  Mariah mentioned how Frank Ocean’s lyrics inspire several of her photographs.  Erik admitted that some of his Instagram videos are formed by first enjoying a beat to a song and then finding a way to incorporate his art into the music.Mallory mentioned that the majority of her inspiration comes from interactions with her clients but echoed Mariah and Erik on the fact that music is a huge part of her inspiration – and students in the audience agreed.Mallory went on to mention that inspiration doesn’t always have to come from art, but that it can come from the everyday things in life, like conversations.The goal of this event was not to persuade every student in attendance pursue a film career but to show everyone how much of a presence art and inspiration have in their everyday lives.  In addition to music and inspiration, the conversation touched on the power of social media, talking about everything from influencers to how social media can be a great vehicle to share one’s creativity.“We Are The Stories We Tell Ourselves” is another example of how Mosaic programs provide students with access to passionate digital media professionals, media literacy resources and opportunities to tell their unique stories.We want to thank Artprize for allowing us to be a part of the ArtPrize STEAM Village as well as our panelists and student attendees for providing us with even more perspective on how art is intertwined within our daily lives.